Nick dropped low upon seeing the figures below. The hallway had given way to a room sprawling outward in the shape of multi-layered colosseum, with him on the third floor. Bulbs of light shone from the ceiling, casting shadows down and outward.
He crept along those very shadows, slowing his steps and bending closer to the ground, taking care not to silhouette himself or cause any noise which would alert others to their presence. Not a large concern given the jibes and yells echoing throughout the room.
Hwan and Ali scampered on opposite sides, leaning against the obsidian-colored balcony. Ali gave him an inquiring look.
Nick raised a finger, informing him to hold for now, wincing as the metallic joints creaked. Beams of light filtered through gaps in the balcony wall, and he peered down one of them.
A ragged group of men and women loitered about the bottom of the room. Sixty or fifty so odd by his initial estimate. Several corpses dressed in similar garb to the captives from earlier littered the floor.
If Nick had a lip to bite down on, he would have. Once again, he arrived too late.
A split was apparent between the two groups with the division centered on two figures.
"Tell me lads," said one of the figures. A gaunt man dressed in red garments with skin as pale as snow. "Why should you all… Why should we risk our livelihood for this noble pomp?"
"So, this is what you were up to Lucius…" said the other man, who was dressed in a gold-blue outfit. An Adrestan officer's uniform, although this one had the actual ranks stitched along the shoulders. "The serpent bares its fangs…"
"I take that as a compliment." The pale man opened his arms out. "You know the rules out here, Cumberlane. The majority have made their pick, and it isn't you."
"Bah!" Cumberlane shook his head.
He turned toward the people in the opposing faction.
"Is this any way for you lot to live? To live like vultures, slinking away in this inhospitable land. Always fighting without rest?"
He pointed to a man in the far corner.
"Johan! You were with me since the beginning. Were you not living out of a cave before? Ecking out a meager living from plants? Running constantly from the creatures of the night?"
"Was," said the man. "Didn't like it too much. Still remember the twigs cricking up my breeches."
"And what you Victor?" Cumberlane pointed to another man in the opposite corner. "How do you prefer your current cabin to that rickety raft you used to pilot?"
"A lot better aye."
"Do you not remember who it was that brought you all together?" Cumberlane looked at all of them. "What you owe me?"
"I don't think you understand that oaths don't mean a damn out here," said a bulky bald figure on the pale man's side.
Several people laughed.
"Desmond you traitor!" A woman with twin braids of red hair on Cumberlane's side pointed a finger towards him.
The man called Desmond shrugged.
"Saw a better deal. Can't fault me for taking it."
"Precisely!" the pale man took the lead. "Tell me my friends. Why follow this… Adrestan dandy for some empty promise which he cannot fulfill!"
Cumberlane stepped in front of him. Even from the distance Nick could see the fury etched on his face.
"The word of my House is absolut-".
"House?" said Lucius. "Your house and all that goes with it is no more. In fact, I hear the Republic has a bounty on your head. Enough to land one of us with enough coin and gold to set us all for life!"
Murmurs followed the exclamation.
"Listen well!" Lucius lifted a golden signet. Nick recognized it, the same one worn by the Guard-Captain. "These are the riches which are promised! Gold. Mana. All will be available by the word of my lady, Civoly Gruces! Knowing this, why deprive yourselves to follow this lordling?"
Everybody murmured and Nick watched as the crowd shifted, more and more of them facing off against Cumberlane and his dwindling number of loyalists. The movement however was anything but quiet, and was followed by a rise of arguing and yelling.
"Traitors!" The red-head stepped forward. "All of yo-"
"Who are you to tell us what to do!"
"I ain't following a vamp!"
"Majority rules. And I say Lucius is in charge now!"
The situation began to grow out of hand, as both Cumberlane and the one called Lucius engaged in a personal verbal spar, ignorant of the chaos breaking out among their ranks.
Nick heard the stretch of a string and turned toward Hwan, who began pulling back the drawstring on his bow. A rod of steel materialized out his palm, taking the shape of an arrow. Green light shone from the end of his draw hand, the wind whirling around it.
He then turned to Ali who slowly drew his sword while pulling a dagger from his belt.
Both looked back at Nick. They said nothing, but the question they asked was clear.
Nick shook his head. A gesture asking them to wait.
He was all too happy to wreak vengeance on those below, but to attack now would have been foolhardy. A common stratagem he read went as follows. Never stop an opponent from making a mistake.
And now they were about to make a mistake which had broken countless armies and kingdoms. Expressing division in the face of an opponent.
Better first to let them bleed each other out.
He didn't have to wait long. A few scant moments later, someone threw a punch against someone else. Nick didn't know which side started it, but the reaction which followed escalated rapidly. Punch led to a shove. Weapons were drawn, followed by a clash of metal. Lights flickered as men and women called upon aether through their bracers.
Then a musket fired, turning someone into a smoldering inferno.
A bracer slashed sideways with his sword, sending out a razor-thin gust of air which cut his unsuspecting target in half. He was mid-swing for another strike when a woman tackled him from behind. She clasped both hands around him, and her body erupted in a fiery inferno. The man shrieked, struggling to escape as the flames burned through his aethereal defenses. She let him go, and he tussled to the floor, twitching as an immolated corpse.
The cavern erupted into a sudden barrage of light and noise. Lightning thundered. The earth shook. Gusts whistled through the arena. Pirates threw elemental fury at each other, all among the clashes of steel.
Another pirate leapt and charged; one hand stretched out an encased in stone. His attack stopped short as a watery tendril slipped around his arm.
More water tendrils shot out, wrapping themselves around the man's neck and legs, holding the rest of him in place.
Another man stood behind him, manipulating the tendrils with his fingers, sapphires blazing along his bracer. He whisked the tendrils in opposite directions, causing every joint on his target to snap into unnatural directions.
The cavern erupted into a sudden barrage of light and noise. Lightning thundered. The earth shook. Gusts whistled through the arena. Pure chaos erupted as attacks were sent in all directions. Nick flinched aside as a lightning bolt veered toward him. It landed just below the edge of the platform he stood on, causing it to rumble but not fall apart.
He took stock of the battle, catching two figures which all others gave a wide berth too. Cumberlane stood on one side, rapier in hand and several bolts of fire blazing in a crescent above him. On the opposite side was the instigator, Lucius. Blood orbited his body in a ring, drawn out of a red-blue gemstone, pietersite, floating above his shoulder.
They moved at the same time. Fire and blood swept forth, clashing in combustions of light and steam. Nick recognized the tactics and pattern of their exchanges. A duel with spells between two innatum. Each looking to conserve one's strength while exploiting the weaknesses of the other. He recognized the specific spells as well. Cumberlane was a practitioner of the third-tier and Lucius was at the very least a match for him.
All this made convinced Nick of the importance of staying out of the fight for as long as possible.
He watched as more corpses to the ones which were there before. Their numbers dropping from the fifty or so to half that.
Then Hwan leapt over, letting loose the drawstring on his bow as he fell.
"Wait!" Nick reached over the edge in a futile gesture to stop him, right as Ali followed the masked stranger over the balcony.
A pirate caught sight of them, he pointed his sabre in their direction, but before he could utter an alert, an arrow lodged itself into his throat.
The man fell to the floor, clutching his throat as Hwan nocked then loosed another arrow. It barreled through the air towards its target, an unassuming bracer fumbling along the outskirts of the battle.
Something else however, struck the man in the neck, causing him to fall. The arrow hurtled over, ricocheting off the opposite wall.
Embedded in the man's neck was a dagger with an emerald hilt. Hwan glanced over to Ali, who had landed a few paces away with one arm stretched out in the aftermath of the throw.
Ali smirked back.
Hwan's face was concealed by the mask, but one could see the annoyance in the gaze. He nocked another arrow and continued forward to join the fight, Ali right on his tail.
Nick clamped his fist onto the balcony in irritation. He would have preferred to have let the two sides whittle each other down some more, but what was done was done. Now he had to focus on assisting the two, or rescuing them depending on their performance. He focused his will, giving out another mental command. Avoiding the instinct to vocalize it.
The threads running along his mind had long since grown into a web with him at the center. He felt them thrum and react as the command was given.
The sound of clicking feet drove closer and Nick turned to see the violet weapons and shields shining in the dim hallway, attached to stark gray figures cloaked in armored plating.
[Strike Droid, Level 8]
[Strike Droid, Level 5]
[Strike Droid, Level 5]
[Tank Droid, Level 5]
…
The droids fanned out and leapt over the balcony in orderly procession.
The battle was still in the midst of a crescendo by the time the first droids landed onto the floor, with Hwan being the first to enter the melee.
The masked man switched out his bow to his trident. He charged at a pirate who raised a musket in his direction.
Nick had never seen a trident used as anything other than a fishing tool or as part of ceremony. The design of it just seemed too unwieldly to use in combat. What he was about to witness however, proved him wrong on that account.
In a split second, there was a flash of green light and Hwan suddenly appeared right in front of his foe, the trident catching the barrel of the musket and pinning it sideways. The man panicked and pulled the trigger. However, the trident had shifted the barrel so when fire belched out, it careened towards another pirate.
The fireball turned the unbeknownst target into a roaring inferno. The man watched stunned as Hwan pivoted the weapon out of his hands and ran the trident through his chest.
Two pirates took notice and flanked Hwan. A woman with fire covering her entire body and a man with whip-like tendrils of water seeping out his fingers. The man swept his arms, causing the tendrils to stream through the air towards his opponent.
All fighting styles he had been accustomed to both under Valdric's tutelage and his own study revolved around the weapon used. A trained fighter was one who honed in and focused their entire effort in attacking and defending through that weapon. What he saw now however, was someone who disregarded that entirely.
Nick could barely follow Hwan's movements. The masked man duck and swerved, tapping away each tendril with the trident and the ends of his hands. Striking and withdrawing fast enough to avoid being entangled by them.
Another flash of green light, then Hwan suddenly appeared between the two of them. The man jerked back while the woman charged.
Hwan feinted a spear-thrust which caused the woman to double back and then move in on the man, sweeping low with his shin.
The impact crunched through the man's ankles, causing him to fall. Hwan pivoted and twisted, smashing his heel into the man's throat the moment he hit the ground. The woman, turned to run, realizing just how out-matched she was, running straight into Ali who slammed her to the floor with a stone fist.
Hwan wasted no time in engaging the next closest threat in his own style. To a non-descript observer it would have seemed theatrical, however Nick could see that there was more to the movements than mere show. Each had a specific purpose. A forearm strike to lock an opponent's elbow in place. A heel kick to knock an opponent's leg off-balance. A palm-strike against an opponent's arm, to cause his sword to go wide, followed by another palm strike to disarm said opponent, before finishing him off by running him through the chest with the trident. Every time an opponent crept within the trident's range, Hwan would parry with the staff before following up with a series of punches and kicks. He swerved and twisted, using spins and leaps to constantly reorient himself against his opponent and gain leverage.
Nick had always thought he had known everything there was to know, and two days on the old continent had proven that false. First with Ali and now with Hwan.
There was no telling how he would have fared against Hwan earlier, and this was all without him bringing out those elemental creatures of his. That and there was the issue of Ali and Osman. He still didn't trust anyone out here.
He thought of what happened to Valdric with his so-called companions.
You couldn't trust anyone but yourself.
He needed to adapt if he was going to survive.
As the number of individual fights lessened, the remaining opponents proved to be the strongest ones left.
And by now they had gained the attention of the newcomers. The large bald man from before, the one called Desmond froze as he squared off in a fight with the red-headed lieutenant who sided with Cumberlane. Nick could see six agates glimmering along his bracer.
"You!" said Desmond. "You're mine!"
The earth-shaper disengaged from his fight, barreling toward Hwan. Shouting out a familiar string of words as he moved.
"Terra Armis Ingurgito Ortus!"
His entire body took on a brown outline. Rocks and stones scrawled up his body, until he grew up into a stone juggernaut.
"To think you escaped my grasp…" said the man, his voice taking on a gravelly tone as he grew into a stone juggernaut. "You killed my brother. Now I'm going to kill you."
A stone fist veered toward the ground that Hwan stood on, who dashed moments before it landed. The impact caused cracks to splinter apart the flooring, obsidian-colored material sputtering in all directions.
The juggernaut swept his other hand down, far faster than Cedric did in his form. It sped down upon Hwan, and stopped with a clunk.
Hwan held up his arm, and a stone shield appeared above it. For a moment Nick thought he could see the outline of a boar, flaring through his clothes from his back. Nevertheless, the pressure of the juggernaut pinned him to the floor.
The trident then flared with green light. A gust of wind whirled around Hwan causing pebbles and shards to rattle along the floor. Then, he swept the weapon sideways.
The juggernaut was well past the physical range of the weapon. However, as the blade swept by, a thin-blade of air scythed outward from the weapon's tip, slashing right through the juggernaut's ankles.
Nothing happened for a moment, then its feet slid away from the rest of its legs. The being toppled forward.
"Wha-!" the being roared, right as Hwan knocked the arm aside and leapt up with both hands on the trident.
The weapon pulsed and flared with green light, the air warping near the points into a spiral. Then it landed into the juggernaut's torso, chipping away at the rock before bursting out the other side, spewing stone shards along with blood and bits of flesh.
Hwan withdrew the spear and dashed back, letting the juggernaut crumble away to reveal the earth-shaper with a hole drilled through his chest.
The explosion caught the attention of everyone who was fighting. Lucius drew back, whirling blood into orbit around him and adopting a defensive posture. His eyes postured on Hwan.
Cumberlane however, looked past Hwan, and his face twisted into horror as he saw the droids.
"No… No!" the man doubled back, shaking his head.
"You… you've taken everything else from me!" Cumberlane looked up to the ceiling. "Have you come to take my life as well!"
Nick frowned, finding the man's reaction far more emotional than expected. He intuited one sole reason. Recognition.
Which meant he had encountered droids before, and by extension another mechanar.
"Back! Back you demons!"
Cumberlane waved his hands, causing the fireballs striding behind him to home in on the droids. Nick could feel the threads running through his mind thrum as the droids took evasive actions to dodge them.
The fireballs however swerved and adjusted their mark as they moved.
They collided with the dozen droids, and Nick felt several of the threads break entirely. Light flashed as the fireballs burst upon the ground. As the smoke cleared, nearly half the droids had been wiped out. Reduced to little more than pieces of gray along the floor. Three tanks remained standing, having survived only due to their shields taking the brunt of the damage. Even still the green bars above their heads had been turned half-red by the impact. The strike droids who survived only did so due to luck. Even still, Nick could see their armor half-shattered by the impacts. The green bars above their heads reduced to a quarter.
Cumberlane searched the second floor.
"Where is… Where is… There!"
He pointed his finger at Nick's location.
"I know your tricks! You will not take me as you did my family!"
A fireball veered up in his direction. Nick could see the danger coming and backed away, but the fireball was infinitely faster than his own movements.
His vision turned white as the fireball zeroed in and a large explosion rocked his mind before everything went black.